Is the Maidenhead Property market holding its breath over the General Election?

Has apathy has hit the Maidenhead housing market as sellers await the outcome of the general election and stricter mortgage regulation suppresses buyer demand? Rightmove reported the number of homes registered for sale per estate agent fell to its lowest level for five years in December, with available stock 10% lower than in the same month a year earlier.

Looking at Maidenhead, in the late summer of 2014, each estate agent in Maidenhead had on average 30.9 properties on its books (as there were a total of 711 properties up for sale in Maidenhead at the peak in the late summer just gone). My research shows that number plummeted to 22.4per agent in December.  While the lack of new properties coming onto the market in the later months of 2014 in Maidenhead pushed asking prices up slightly from November to December, traditionally a quiet season for the housing market, property sellers will need to work hard in 2015 to complete a sale.

The length of time a property takes to sell has ever so slightly increased over the last few months. Two bedroom properties in Maidenhead are now taking 89 days to sell, three bedroom 71 days, four bedrooms 84 days, but here an interesting figure, one beds are taking on average 92 days to find a buyer.

2015 will be the year of the selective mover.  With only 241 brand new properties a year being built in Maidenhead since the turn of the Millennium, this woefully low and insufficient number of new buildings in the town over the past few decades and a systemic change in the type of properties homeowners want (with families splitting etc so we have too many larger houses and not enough smaller ones), buyers are becoming dissatisfied with, and therefore dismissive of what is up for sale.

The heat has gone out of the Maidenhead property market and I anticipate a moderate reduction from the high transaction volumes seen in 2014, but it most certainly isn’t icy cold. That might mean Maidenhead landlords could bag a bargain during this period of uncertainty, especially if the financial markets do not like the election outcome. Markets and buyers do not like uncertainty, but savvy Buy to let landlords know buy to let is a long term game, and irrespective of short term apathy, reduction in the quality and quantity of stock for homeowners, if people don’t buy property they rent.  

The Council aren’t building anymore properties, the council house waiting list is decades, not years for the better type of property .. the only other place to get a roof over your head .. rent a property!  Good old Bricks and Mortar! In fact with less properties coming on the market in Maidenhead, that will keep prices quite stable.